It's too early for me to worry about retirement. That's a common mindset of a lot of young people, including many of those we try to reach with our retirement education efforts. Yes, retirement may be a long way off and feels even longer for someone just starting their working years, but there are a couple of reasons that retirement planning is particularly important for young people.

First, there's the bad news. The reality is that changes in the retirement landscape mean that young people will need to save more than their parents and grandparents did. That's because the other two legs of the retirement planning stool, Social Security and pensions, aren't as reliable as they used to be.

The Uncertain Future of Social Security and Medicare

We've all heard about how the Social Security trust fund is going broke. The latest report this year projects that there will only be enough revenue to pay about 75% of scheduled benefits after 2033, well before anyone under 40 will be old enough to be eligible for Social Security. Medicare is in even worse fiscal shape. So whether it's through GOP house budget committee chairman Paul Ryan's plan to convert Medicare to premium support payments that grow slower than health costs or through cuts initiated by the Independent Payment Advisory Board newly empowered by President Obama, there's a good change that future retirees will have to spend more on their health care even as their Social Security benefits are being cut.

Of course, the politicians could also decide to raise taxes to pay for all the benefits that they promised would never be taken away from those in or nearing retirement. Who do you think is going to pay the bulk of those taxes? (Hint: who's vote is less likely to swing elections?)

The Decline of Traditional Pensions

If the first leg sounds wobbly, the pension leg is disappearing altogether. The total number of traditional defined benefit plans has plummeted from over 112,000 in the late 1980s to just over 25,000 last year. Even that number is inflated because an increasing number of those plans still in existence are actually frozen and closed to new participants. Besides, even if they were fortunate enough to land a job with a pension, the frequent job hopping of many young people makes it less likely for them to stay long enough to qualify. In fact, one study reported that 70% of Generation Y employees left their first job within only 2 years, not long enough to vest in many pension plans or even to get the employer's 401(k) match.

Crisis or Opportunity?

That leaves saving as the only leg left. Unfortunately, our own research shows employees under age 44 having lower rates of retirement plan participation than most older age groups. 55% of Generation Y respondents to a survey admitted they haven't started saving anything at all for retirement and 64% said they don't even think about it. If there's any solace it's that 73% at least knew they weren't saving enough.

The Chinese character for crisis is the same for opportunity. In this case, it certainly rings true. That's because the good news is that young people actually have the most to gain by saving for retirement.